Denmark pulls diplomats out as cartoon row simmers

Denmark said yesterday it had withdrawn diplomats and staff from Indonesia and Iran because of security threats, while Muslims held demonstrations in European cities over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The diplomats' departure follows that of Danish embassy staff in Syria, who left on Friday on the grounds that the security provided by Syrian authorities was inadequate. Denmark has been the target of protests in Islamic countries since cartoons of the Prophet, first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September, were reprinted by other European newspapers in January.

At the Winter Olympics in Italy, plainclothes guards accompanied the Danish team at the opening ceremony on Friday. French police estimated that 7,200 people took part in a march through central Paris, waving banners and chanting, but the atmosphere was peaceful and many families took part.

In London, up to 4,000 demonstrators converged on Trafalgar Square yesterday, joining the capital's Mayor Ken Livingstone in a protest against the publication of the cartoons. In marked contrast to angry demonstrations outside the Danish embassy in the British capital last week, the protest was good-natured and there was no sign of the extreme anti-Western placards brandished at the embassy protest. No British newspapers have reprinted the cartoons.

About 2,500 Muslims marched peacefully through the German city of Duesseldorf, past the Danish consulate, and in Berlin about 1,200 gathered outside the Danish embassy. In the Swiss capital, Berne, about 1,000 people held a peaceful protest outside the parliament building.